ABSTRACT
On March 31, 1982 President Ronald Reagan, addressing the United States (US)-Soviet strategic nuclear relationship, asserted that the Soviet Union had achieved a “definite margin of superiority.” The US should move cautiously in the area of strategic defense. The US has virtually no air defense capability against a large-scale cruise missile attack. Civil defense preparations also often have been cited to indicate a distinct Soviet advantage in event of nuclear exchange. Richard Pipes argued that support within the Soviet Union for large offensive forces and the rejection of the theory of mutual deterrence is driven by a combination of political, institutional, and technical factors. Pipes identified other reasons that compel Soviet strategists to reject Western notions of mutual deterrence. Rather than signaling a rejection of deterrence as Pipes has suggested, Soviet force postures and strategic doctrine reflect a different approach to a deterrence and strategic planning.
